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Newt Gingrich aided by old pal Bob Walker

Bob Walker (left) has been a close ally of Gingrich’s going back to the late 1970s. | AP Photo

On how he could advise the failing mortgage giant: “He says he was a historian. What he meant by that is he was hired to provide strategy advice from his own philosophical standpoint. … Clearly, they wanted to have somebody who could give them an understanding about issues from a different perspective than where they usually went.”

On Gingrich’s temperament: “It took a highly disciplined person to spend 10 years moving the party to a majority status,” Walker said, noting accomplishments that include reforming welfare and passing a tax reform package. “There are people who bear grudges over that period of time. Newt was very tough during that period of time. We denied people chairmanships, we got rid of whole committees … we refused to put people’s legislation on the agenda if we thought it would split the very narrow majority we had.”

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Walker’s dogged defense of Gingrich has been more than 30 years in the making. The two grew close as part of a tight-knit group of GOP lawmakers meeting as the Conservative Opportunity Society, which they created to promote an activist Republican worldview.

Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.) was also a part of the cabal of junior Republicans working to create a GOP majority in the House.

“We had respect for elders in the party but thought we had gotten too accepting of our position in the minority,” Lungren said. “Bob Walker took the position of the parliamentary guy. Newt was the vision guy.”

Gingrich and Walker would maintain that dynamic throughout their congressional tenure. As Gingrich rose in Republican leadership, Walker served first as Gingrich’s deputy whip and later as chairman of the Republican leadership under Gingrich. As a member of Gingrich’s inner circle, Walker was also a member of the Speaker’s Advisory Group that helped set the agenda.

Even after Walker left Congress, he and Gingrich remained close: Walker attended dinners with the speaker and worked on projects. After Gingrich left for the private sector, the two continued to work on discrete projects together as Walker built his lobbying firm Wexler & Walker Public Policy Associates and Gingrich amassed his network of nonprofit groups and his consulting firm the Gingrich Group.

While Walker plans to stay the course in helping Gingrich get elected, he doesn’t have his eye on a plumb administration slot.

“We’ll have to see what his decisions are at that point,” Walker said. “I certainly would want to help him do the transition and be as helpful as I can, but I’m kind of enjoying life in the private sector and am not particularly anxious to move into the public sector again.”